Increasingly, information is stored and accessed across an array of computing devices that operate in conjunction to provide a variety of services. For example, an email user may use a client computing device to communicate with an authentication server configured on the edge of an email service provider's network. The email user may access email from an email storage server, such that these three devices communicate together to provide a seemingly simple Internet-based service.
Service provider networks have increased along with increasing reliance and use on such networks for media access, communication platforms, banking and commerce, and others. The complexity of service provider networks may include many different applications executing on many different devices on the inside of the network and at the edge of the network and may include devices operating outside the service provider's physically controlled network.
The increase in size and complexity of these networks and in the numbers of applications executing thereon has complicated efforts to maintain the security of these environments. And as consumers and businesses have begun relying increasingly on such networks, which they may access from anywhere via the Internet, those consumers and businesses exchange an increasing amount of sensitive information. While many different technologies have been developed to improve the security of service provider networks, these technologies have not proven entirely satisfactory.
These drawings will be better understood by those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description.